Sister Festival of Miao

10:25, August 05, 2011

The four-day Sister Festival, dubbed as the ethnic Miao's folk Valentine's Day, features series of folklore fetes, including full-dress grand parade, folk game for fun, dragon canoe race, bullfight as appealing tourist attraction of folk art.

The four-day Sister Festival, dubbed as the ethnic Miao's folk Valentine's Day, features series of folklore fetes.

This the traditional festival for Miao people living in Taijiang County, Shibing County and other counties located alongside Qingshui River in Guizhou. It is also known as the "Oldest member Oriental Valentine", sisters, young boys and girls go together to choose their ideal love this day.

The young Miao girls make up and dressed up nicely with the headdress, hairpins more neck-rings, chains loins, chest locks, and lots of accessories, all made of silver, to celebrate the Sisters' Meal Festival, and look for their potential lifelong partners.

The festival always begins with special family meals. In this festival the people sharing a traditional foods such as rise that has been colored with dayes of different leaves, berries and flowers, then cooked in bamboo tubes, and homemade rice wine, is similarly practiced among the many Miao tribes.

These rice balls are presented to young men who come for visits, and each Treasure has a different opinion. Pine Needles means "You must give me embroidery needles industry. And the corn silk is a suggestion of fine yarn. A thorn tells the lucky fellow " You are the one". Chopsticks or red flower pistils say, Let's marry quickly The sooner the better . And a single Chopsticks some garlic and chili means, “Find someone else!”.

In the dark night festival beat increases as the dragon dances begin. Candles are lit in the 25-meter-long hollow paper dragons. Battles begin as fiery will weave in and out of the hooting crowds chasing each other. Evening, the oldest continuing to make the rounds, greeting their friends, swapping stories and songs, the sharing of tobacco and wine as the moon rises high in the night sky, young lovers wander off. As the crowds slowly gathering, the beautiful dancing girls strut like peacocks while the boys look on admiringly.